dewline | Entries tagged with alpha flight

Sure, the previews - I'm sourcing Newsarama here for this - want us focused on Rogers and Doom...but that's not the real lead in my opinion...

https://t.co/66dzjudlQb?amp=1

Current Mood: worried
Current Location: Home-for-now

My brain is putting these things together:

A reunion of the Inhumans cast in Toronto...because Serinda Swan(Medusa) and Anson Mount(Black Bolt) are already working on other stuff there and knocking the critics dead with joy. Get those actors a script they can all have fun with.
She-Hulk shows up because the Inhumans have moved from Hawai'i to Toronto because politics. And she's a lawyer, drowning in a crash course on international law, refugee/immigration law, etc..
Ms. Marvel if they hold onto her Inhuman connection from the comics, and my logic doesn't have an explanation why her family would let her go to/bring her from Jersey City to Toronto yet.
Shang-Chi, because of his father's schemes having a Toronto angle.
I want to try to leverage Alpha Flight as I first knew it from the comics further into MCU being without being X-Men-dependent.
Get some of the Agents of SHIELD cast into the game. At least Daisy Johnson and alt-timeline Daniel Sousa.

None of this makes any sense to any of you, right? Outside of a fanfic context, anyway. I'm spitballing here out loud in public, precisely where I shouldn't. Also, getting Canadian actors - Swan, Vellani, Maslany, Liu - to be able to work on a Marvel project in Canada.

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Location: Home-for-now
Current Music: Ideas on CBC Radio

...what diploma program should Heather McNeil - the future Vindicator - be taking at University of Calgary in order to get in the door with what's left of Roxxon Canada?

Okay, two Wednesdays ago, the first issue of House of X hit the comic book shops and the online subscription services. And Jonathan Hickman introduced this new/old thing called "Orchis". It seems to be the latest in a chain of things from the Weapon Plus program to Project Wideawake, hostile responses to the existence of superhuman mutants with heavy USGov involvement.
( More spoilerish and involved details here )

Current Mood: curious

Tony Isabella reminded me - and thousands of others - on Facebook of this anniversary.

Marvel started printing the first Alpha Flight series, written and drawn by John Byrne for its first two years beginning in 1983. I was in Saskatchewan, going to high school. I don't remember whether it was the Regina Book Exchange or the local convenience store that provided the copy I bought. But there it was. Published by Marvel in the decades before Disney, created to host a mostly Canadian cast of super-heroic characters spun out of Uncanny X-Men.

I loved it, even with all its weirdness. Still do. I miss the original premise, and while some of the characters still prosper as supporting cast in Captain Marvel, it's not the same. It's not meant to be.

The original Alpha Flight is the product of a particular phase in Canadian history, politics and culture. It grew up along with me, and the editorial policies of Marvel may force some changes to its backstory over the decades, as has happened with Iron Man and (probably) the Punisher, among others.

I await its core characters' further evolution with interest.

Current Mood: contemplative

Crazy thought for an Alpha Flight movie set in the MCU: Heather McNeil performing the BNL song "Odds Are" in a Calgary karaoke joint as part of her courtship of James Hudson. Anyone who (a) knows the lyrics and (b) knows the history of Heather and Mac will know why it has to be that song.

Current Mood: nerdy

For Black Panther?

Wakanda's languages being built up, like we've seen with tlhIngan Hol in the Star Trek worlds.

Yes, I expect Wakanda has more than one locally-evolved language. Certainly, they've picked up words from other African languages over the centuries. And being a coalition of cultures that take pride in knowledge, many of even their most traditionalist tribes make certain to be fluent in multiple tongues. Yet it's been long-established that there is at least one language the Wakandans truly call their own. And reality in linguistics being what it is, history and logic suggest there should be more than the one.

For Agents of SHIELD and its collection of related titles?

A guide to the organization itself. Current writer Marc Guggenheim has Coulson recently claiming that he works for Washington, mere months after Mark Waid portrays him as insisting that the "H for Homeland" more accurately means "Homeworld". In Civil War II # 0, Brian Michael Bendis reminds us of the organization's United Nations connections.

Outside of their own series, we have at least one of their agents, Mockingbird headlining her own book. (About damn time!) Both Captains America titles, Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers, have ongoing relationships with the organization. Howling Commandos of SHIELD recently wrapped up some of the adventures of their supernatural interventions via the STAKE division. Black Widow has an on-again-off-again work relationship with SHIELD (currently "off", but don't expect that to last forever). The organization shares the Triskelion complex in New York Harbor with the current incarnation of the Ultimates...and on it goes.

(Don't get me started again on their Helicarriers and "Battlecarriers". Not right now. If you've seen my Pericles Project folder on Flickr, you know how much enthusiasm I can pour into that topic.)

We need a handbook to the organization itself. An "Agent Orientation Manual" if you will. No need to get into the minutiae of clauses of international treaties and internal regulations that should govern SHIELD, but something that nails down the current "broad strokes" of its history, current prominent personnel-characters, technology, operations, adversaries and methods.

For Alpha Flight, now pent up in the pages of Captain Marvel?

A better understanding of how what began as a government-run superhero team tied to my home country became an international planetary defence force. That seems to be slowly unfolding. I await developments with interest.

More as I mull it over.

Current Mood: nerdy

Looking at this for a few minutes...

It gets me thinking about the logistics for location VFX work that would be needed for some of the projects I hope to see on the big - or small - screen before I die. Classic version of Northguard, as originally created by Mark Shainblum and Gabriel Morrissette, with the story set in Montréal, maybe. Or, going back to Marvel for a moment, a story featuring the classic Canadian-made Alpha Flight set in Ottawa or Toronto or Vancouver (or, hopefully, some combination of the three cities). Or any version of Captain Canuck...

The filming restrictions in play in NYC for Avengers' purposes, or in Washington for use in The Winter Soldier, would be applicable to some extent here. Ottawa being a national capital, with all the issues that go with that, you couldn't not expect some of the same hurdles ILM and their partner/competitors had to deal with on those productions.

I may revisit this train of thought. Not sure where to take it yet.

Current Mood: nerdy

After reading new first issues for The Ultimates and Spider-Woman, I'm now sure of this: Marvel Comics is indeed severing the connection between Canada and the Alpha Flight brand. Whatever Marvel Editorial wants Alpha Flight to be now, they've got Carol "Captain Marvel" Danvers in charge of it.

Not happy about this, of course, for obvious reasons of atavistic, nationalistic, nostalgic sentiment.

Current Mood: irritated

I'm voting after work tomorrow. Partly to get it done. Partly to avert the temptation to vote out of fear rather than hope.

Other notes...

Busted a filling again. It's one that has older work, so maybe it was time for the upgrade. But with the not-so-new-anymore-guy, it's still pricier than it used to be. I can manage the expense, but it still pains the wallet.

(Universal dental care at long last in Canada, anyone? Please?)

Comics reading this week: Captain Canuck # 4, We Stand on Guard # 4, Avengers # 0, All-New All-Different Marvel Point-One.

The third item on this list has me wondering: is Marvel Editorial seeking to sever the link between Canada and the Alpha Flight brand?

Current Mood: busy

...and someone that I agree with about a continuing annoyance: the idea that Alpha Flight should equal "red shirt" for Marvel Comics Universe writers' purposes. Thanks to the Alpha Flight Facebook group for pointing this out.

The full essay can be found here:

http://asortablog.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/alpha-flight-not-just-canadian-cannon-fodder/

Current Mood: annoyed

It's possible that I should leave this to

lawmultiverse to deal with in their own time. But Jonathan Hickman wrote this one up to be set in a city I called home for about twelve years before moving to Ottawa.

( Spoilers after the cut )

More as it occurs to anyone interested and reading this.

Current Mood: nerdy

One wonders if the upcoming Omega Flight reorganization to be depicted in Avengers is part of a larger plan to play out Canada's internal divisions in a superheroic context. To wit:

Alpha Flight - Canada according to Lester B. Pearson, Pierre Trudeau and Tommy Douglas among others.

Omega Flight - Canada according to Stephen Harper, Mike Harris, Brad Wall and so forth.

I suspect Jonathan Hickman of being capable of doing the research and thinking it through in those terms once thoroughly informed. But would editorial oversight permit that?

Am I thinking too much about this? Probably.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Sunday Edition on CBC Radio One

You might want to look at the covers for Avengers # 8 thru 10...

http://dustinweaver.blogspot.ca/2013/02/entry-166-avengers-covers-8910.html

Current Mood: worried

A retrospective of five of Alpha Flight's HQs over the decades.

The same blogger's opinion on which five DCU cities should be annexed by Canada, if you can believe it. Read this for the entertainment value. (And is DC still serious about retroactively making Booster Gold one of us post-Flashpoint, people? Really?)

(Also...if the DCU characters were to be all Canadianized? Smallville? In Saskatchewan. No arguments on this one, readers of mine.)

Is it possible for a mystery bookstore to self-resurrect in Ottawa? Linda Wiken saith "YES!" Effective this very weekend, in fact!

More later on...

Update 19 June 2014: The blog entries linked to here have - along with the blog itself - been rendered private by the owner. Didn't know until today that this had happened, nor am I aware of when and why. Apologies for this.

Current Mood: amused

I don't know quite whom to thank or blame for raising this one. By right of lack of expertise on the subject, I should be passing this one on to Law and the Multiverse. This might not be entirely fair to the authors of that weblog, seeing as their primary expertise is in American law.

So...

( Minor spoilers to follow re: Alpha Flight v.4 # 1 after the cut! )

Current Mood: curious

Linkages here for your review:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/02/15/chaos-in-canada-the-next-big-thing-is-alpha-flight/

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30845

Read and discuss!

Current Mood: curious

And now we know...some of the story:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/chaos-war-alpha-flight-100817.html

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27862

Canadian readers may want to steel themselves for some of the quotes in the second article.

Current Mood: confused

Seems like there are rumours in the air. And that special alternative cover for Avengers # 4 set for release at the Toronto Fan Expo...and Phil Jimenez has been cited as making hopeful noises in recent months.

To paraphrase Eugene Milton Judd:

I busted my buns to read Alpha Flight. I wanna read ALPHA FLIGHT!

Current Mood: Cautiously hopeful

The reason for the renewed attack of nerves?

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=82888

I do not like the idea of the established characters yet again referred to as "baggage" to be "left behind".

Apologies to Scott Kolins on this.

Current Mood: Nervous again...
Current Music: CBC Radio One